Nov

16

November 1939

During the past week in Home Waters four ships have been sunk by mine and two by direct submarine action. Of these, five were British (total tonnage in 11,359) and one Norwegian (1,019 tonnes). These figures, as do last week’s losses, suggests the increasing use of the mine in the attack on trade.

Nov

12

November 1939

‘conscripts are being crowded in vast numbers upon the frontiers of Holland and Belgium. To both these States the Nazis have given most recent and solemn guarantees. No wonder anxiety is great. No one believes one word Hitler and the Nazi Party say’

Nov

9

November 1939

Somehow or other, it seemed to me that things looked different from what they had on the previous days. Then I noticed that the German barrier across the road which had always been closed, was now lifted; there seemed to be nothing between us and the enemy. My feeling of impending danger was very strong. Yet the scene was peaceful enough.

Nov

9

November 1939

On an average 17 convoys have been at sea each day, requiring the daily employment on this service of one battleship, four cruisers and twenty-one destroyers, besides escort vessels and trawlers. In addition the French have five destroyers or Scouts at sea daily escorting between Gibraltar and Western Approaches. Armed Merchant Cruisers have been taken into service for ocean escort duties.

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The second volume of this superb overview of the whole war.
You had to eat somewhere, sleep somewhere and occasionally you felt a desperate need to talk to someone, even though you were aware that to do so could be dangerous, if not fatal. Boredom was, in fact, a menace that no one was taught to contend with at the training school. Boredom was something individuals had to deal with themselves, and it cost quite a few men and women their lives when they came up with the wrong solution.
The Tigers were over-engineered, required raw materials that were in short supply, were time-consuming to manufacture and difficult to recover from the battlefield. Only around 1,300 of the Tiger I and fewer than 500 of the Tiger II were produced, so they were never going to make anything more than a local impact on the outcome of the fighting on the Western and Eastern fronts. Yet the myth of the Tigers, with their 88mm guns, thick armour and brutal profiles, has grown over time to the extent that they are regarded as the deadliest tanks of the Second World War.